Unknown-One
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2005
- Messages
- 8,909
Figured this mod was worth mentioning here, as I'm rather pleased with the results.
This all started because of a bad run of ACX coolers that all had whiny fans. You can read about my trip through RMA-hell right over here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1801784
Supplies needed for this mod:
1. EVGA ACX cooler (GTX 780 / GTX Titan variant)
2. Two Arctic F9 PWM fans
3. One PWM fan adapter
4. Two small squares of 3M double-sided foam tape.
5. A pile of zip-ties
6. A pair of pliers and a small file
7. Small screwdriver set
8. Soldering iron, solder, shrink tubing
9. A clip-on ferrite core
Here's what we're going for when we're all done...
Off the card, ready to mount:
On the card, ready to be fired up for the first time:
I didn't take photos of the build process, but here's the gist of it:
1. Remove the ACX cooler from the graphics card
- Doing this requires removing 4 spring-loaded screws on the back of the card, around the GPU.
2. Remove the fan shroud from the ACX cooler
- You'll find two screws on the underside and one screw on either side of the shroud.
3. Remove the stock fans from the ACX cooler
- Three small screws on each one. You'll need to get a jewelers screwdriver between the blades
4. Place the new 92mm fans on the cooler
- One fan will need to have two small chunks taken out its frame to clear some small threaded post-holes on the cooler. I just used pliers to snap off the pieces.
- A metal tab (formerly used for cable management) needs to be bent vertical.
- Two squares of foam tape are needed to make the second fan mount level.
5. Wire up the fans
- These fans include PWM-sharing. Simply chain the connectors together and connect the terminator from one of the fans to the end of the chain.
- Use the adapter to connect the fans to the card's fan header. Speed control will work as per usual.
- If you experience your fans ramping-up to full speed at random intervals, you need to shorten your fan cables. Break out the solder and shrink tubing!
- Additionally, clip one of the ferrites (linked above) onto the yellow RPM-sense wire. This effectively creates a simple low-pass filter that will help strip a lot of RF-noise from the RPM signal.
6. Get creative with zip-ties
- You'll only be able to mount the fans corner-to-corner. It took a while to figure out the best and cleanest way to do this.
- Cable management can all be done on the motherboard-facing side of the cooler.
- Avoid having any cables come in direct contact with the heatsink fins. Melted cables are bad! This is possible (none of my wires touch).
- If you do find that you need to have wires in direct contact with the heatsink, make sure to wrap them in shrink tubing (the stock fans use this method).
7. Install and enjoy
- Remember to set a custom fan profile. Mine run at minimum speed until 40c, then go through an exponential ramp to 100%.
- Temps should be ~29c idle, 72c load
- Noise levels should be reduced to almost nothing!
Updates:
Edit 1: As an added bonus, this also gives you slightly more breathing room as far as power-target goes. The stock EVGA fans draw over 13 watts when running full-speed, while these Arctic F9's draw a total of 3.6 watts combined! This difference is actually noticeable, and could allow slightly better overclocks on an unmodified BIOS.
Edit 2: I discovered that enough RF noise can accumulate on the fan RPM sense wire (the yellow wire) that it causes the GPU BIOS to detect a fault condition. When this happens, the fan ramps up-and-down continuously as the video BIOS tries to restore sanity. I had to shorten the cables as much as possible AND add a clip-on ferrite core in order to totally eliminate spikes on the RPM sense wire. Shortening should be done using solder and shrink tubing (which I've added to the parts-list above).
Edit3: Just some additional information. The best way to troubleshoot the fan speed issue is to install EVGA Precision and set the polling interval to 100ms (fastest polling interval allowed). This will allow you to monitor spikes on the Fan Tachometer graph in real time (spikes you can't see with the default 5000ms polling rate). Ideally, you want to see NO spikes on this graph, because enough spikes will trigger a fault condition and the GPU BIOS will force the fan up to 100% temporarily to try and resolve it.
This all started because of a bad run of ACX coolers that all had whiny fans. You can read about my trip through RMA-hell right over here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1801784
Supplies needed for this mod:
1. EVGA ACX cooler (GTX 780 / GTX Titan variant)
2. Two Arctic F9 PWM fans
3. One PWM fan adapter
4. Two small squares of 3M double-sided foam tape.
5. A pile of zip-ties
6. A pair of pliers and a small file
7. Small screwdriver set
8. Soldering iron, solder, shrink tubing
9. A clip-on ferrite core
Here's what we're going for when we're all done...
Off the card, ready to mount:
On the card, ready to be fired up for the first time:
I didn't take photos of the build process, but here's the gist of it:
1. Remove the ACX cooler from the graphics card
- Doing this requires removing 4 spring-loaded screws on the back of the card, around the GPU.
2. Remove the fan shroud from the ACX cooler
- You'll find two screws on the underside and one screw on either side of the shroud.
3. Remove the stock fans from the ACX cooler
- Three small screws on each one. You'll need to get a jewelers screwdriver between the blades
4. Place the new 92mm fans on the cooler
- One fan will need to have two small chunks taken out its frame to clear some small threaded post-holes on the cooler. I just used pliers to snap off the pieces.
- A metal tab (formerly used for cable management) needs to be bent vertical.
- Two squares of foam tape are needed to make the second fan mount level.
5. Wire up the fans
- These fans include PWM-sharing. Simply chain the connectors together and connect the terminator from one of the fans to the end of the chain.
- Use the adapter to connect the fans to the card's fan header. Speed control will work as per usual.
- If you experience your fans ramping-up to full speed at random intervals, you need to shorten your fan cables. Break out the solder and shrink tubing!
- Additionally, clip one of the ferrites (linked above) onto the yellow RPM-sense wire. This effectively creates a simple low-pass filter that will help strip a lot of RF-noise from the RPM signal.
6. Get creative with zip-ties
- You'll only be able to mount the fans corner-to-corner. It took a while to figure out the best and cleanest way to do this.
- Cable management can all be done on the motherboard-facing side of the cooler.
- Avoid having any cables come in direct contact with the heatsink fins. Melted cables are bad! This is possible (none of my wires touch).
- If you do find that you need to have wires in direct contact with the heatsink, make sure to wrap them in shrink tubing (the stock fans use this method).
7. Install and enjoy
- Remember to set a custom fan profile. Mine run at minimum speed until 40c, then go through an exponential ramp to 100%.
- Temps should be ~29c idle, 72c load
- Noise levels should be reduced to almost nothing!
Updates:
Edit 1: As an added bonus, this also gives you slightly more breathing room as far as power-target goes. The stock EVGA fans draw over 13 watts when running full-speed, while these Arctic F9's draw a total of 3.6 watts combined! This difference is actually noticeable, and could allow slightly better overclocks on an unmodified BIOS.
Edit 2: I discovered that enough RF noise can accumulate on the fan RPM sense wire (the yellow wire) that it causes the GPU BIOS to detect a fault condition. When this happens, the fan ramps up-and-down continuously as the video BIOS tries to restore sanity. I had to shorten the cables as much as possible AND add a clip-on ferrite core in order to totally eliminate spikes on the RPM sense wire. Shortening should be done using solder and shrink tubing (which I've added to the parts-list above).
Edit3: Just some additional information. The best way to troubleshoot the fan speed issue is to install EVGA Precision and set the polling interval to 100ms (fastest polling interval allowed). This will allow you to monitor spikes on the Fan Tachometer graph in real time (spikes you can't see with the default 5000ms polling rate). Ideally, you want to see NO spikes on this graph, because enough spikes will trigger a fault condition and the GPU BIOS will force the fan up to 100% temporarily to try and resolve it.
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